Nokogiri: Possible Use-After-Free when setting `Document#root=` to an invalid node type

Summary

Nokogiri::XML::Document#root= validated only that the new root was a Nokogiri::XML::Node, allowing a DTD node to be set as the document root. The result is a heap use-after-free during garbage collection or finalization, leading to an invalid memory read or potentially a segfault.

Nokogiri 1.19.4 restricts Document#root= to element nodes, raising TypeError for any other node type.

This memory-safety issue affects only the CRuby implementation (libxml2). The JRuby implementation was not affected; the same input validation was added there for behavioral parity.

Severity

The Nokogiri maintainers have evaluated this as low severity. This is only triggered by a programming error. It requires application code to assign a non-element node such as a DTD as the document root via Document#root=. Nokogiri 1.19.4 now raises TypeError instead of allowing a use-after-free. It cannot be triggered by untrusted input or through normal use of the public API.

Mitigation

Upgrade to Nokogiri 1.19.4 or later.

As a workaround, applications that cannot upgrade should avoid assigning a DTD (or any non-element node) via Document#root=.

Credit

This issue was responsibly reported by Zheng Yu from depthfirst.com.